


Progress of Nature

by Baphiwens



Category: Original Work
Genre: Action/Adventure, Advanced Technology, Angst, Blood and Gore, Civil wars, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fanatic Spirituals, Fantasy, Incest, Interracial Relationship, Interstellar travel, Language, Materialistic, Militaristic, Militaristic Universe, Mutant Powers, Religious Fanaticism, Romance, Science Fiction, Sex, Supernatural - Freeform, Universal Empires, War, War of Worlds, Xenophobes, monarchs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-08
Updated: 2019-11-08
Packaged: 2021-01-25 15:30:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21358522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Baphiwens/pseuds/Baphiwens
Summary: Alec Else - a boy of below-average talent in a militaristic universe, where all organic life possesses powers of extreme strength called Natures - just wanted to get by. Now he struggles to cope with a tertiary school system that teaches both education and war. Warning: Portrayals of gore, language, sex and incest.
Relationships: Original Character(s)/Original Character(s), Original Female Character/Original Male Character





	Progress of Nature

The morning had dawned cold and misty, much to Alec Elses' dismay. All the excitement he had previously held for the day had died, only to be replaced by a complete disinterest in all things that had to do with him leaving his room. The thought of it all annoyed him - why did he need to even leave? Could they not simply send his Honours, Certificates and Recommendation cards to him?

Scowling to himself, he shifted in his blankets and sat up - waiting for the inevitable moment his father would come in and wake him up. He was not tired, nor was he sleepy - despite having had no shut-eye the previous night.

A light knock came from his door and it opened gently thereafter, his father coming in with a not so surprising expression at seeing him awake. Thomas Else was a tall, and handsome man. With bright blond hair, green eyes, a slightly upturned nose and lips that suited his round face. He was also the strongest Repressor Alec knew, though that did not say much on its own, he only knew a handful of them in a world filled with them.

"Couldn't sleep?" The man sat down on the edge of Alecs' bed, sighing as he did so.

"Could you?" He meant for it to come out less snappy, but it could not be helped.

Tom only smiled at him, "No. Though only because I was worried about you. I checked up on you a few times."

"No, you..." He was about to call him out on it, he didn't remember seeing or hearing his father come in once. But the grin on the older mans face told him all. He used his powers, "You didn't have to do that. You could have just come and sat down..."

"I wanted to. But you know how you're like when you're angry, or sad. You don't want anything to do with anyone."

Alec let that hang. There may have been some truth to it, now that he thought of it objectively. He always felt inclined to be alone when agitated, especially when he had been arguing with his parents. Spending his time devising retorts to what that particular argument was about and trying to think of all the possible responses he would receive, before orchestrating a way to resurface the topic. Though he usually cooled off before the third part.

Unfortunately, this was not about an argument. Nor was it something he could just _cool off_ from.

"So," His father began quietly, trying to stir the imminent subject away "Are you excited?"

"I was," Was Alec's retort. He didn't need to ask what he meant. Today was the talk of the entire planet. The graduation ceremonies of this years Class-of-Seventeen. Seventeen-year-olds from all the Paramount schools in the world were graduating. And he just happened to be turning seventeen himself, "Now I don't even want to go."

"See? Alone," Alec caught the shadow of a smile on his fathers' lips, "Are you going to go then?"

"I have a choice?" He asked rhetorically. He'd missed school Monday and Tuesday, but in this, they both knew he had to go. It was either that or he would not get his essentials. _No excuses_, their instructors had all said. Alec had never seen someone from a Class-of-seventeen repeat a year for all his 10 years of learning, nor had he heard of such happening. He would rather not see himself be the first.

"You should get up and use the Remoulder. I'm not allowed to leave the house for a bit myself, so I won't be around. While it hurts me because I won't be there for you. I am sort of relieved I won't have to go through the mess of sitting with the Moldenhauwers," Alec allowed himself to smile for what felt like the first time in days. The Moldenhauwers were a married couple, who were a little too open about things that should be kept behind closed doors. His father was almost certain Jenny - the wife - wanted to sleep with him. He was also sure Anon - the husband - wanted to do the same.

"It's okay, don't feel too bad about it," Alec finally said, closing his eyes and sighing a final time before standing, "Assortment. Cleaning and Ceremonial," he muttered, and all the contents on the nearby study table seemed to melt into the desk as it lifted a bit further off the ground, floating towards him. It changed its shape, the inner-top parts disappearing, leaving only its edges - which emitted a green light.

"Did it do it okay?" He turned to his father when the Remoulder had gone through him. He was now out of his pyjamas and in his ceremonial uniform.

He was in a blue high collared half-cape, which hid his chin and made his hands stick out from its sides. It had the circular embroidery of Earth over the chest, and it extended to just below the collar. Underneath, most of the top half of a grey jumpsuit was hidden from view and the bottom half extended onto his knees. He had long, dark socks on that just extended onto his knees, with dark shoes. And a white beret in his hand.

"Yeah, but you should mind your hair," Alec nodded, already intending to and moving to the mirror where the Remoulder now sat as a study desk once more. It did most of the work. Brushed his teeth, wash him over and put him in clothing, but it did not sort out hair. He had his mothers traits, so combing his Afro-textured hair was the hardest part of his mornings, though it didn't usually take long. A thought went over him as he extended it upwards from his scalp, "She used a Psychic Emanator, didn't she?"

At this, his father _did _look surprised, "How did you -"

Alec turned to him, "Come on, I'm not that stupid. With words like abuse of technology and emotional manipulation being thrown around, I knew it had to something bad," Psychic Emanators were devices that projected a psychic field around a small area, and anyone in that field it was programmed to affect would be forced to feel whatever emotion it was commanded to influence. Its effects could be long-lasting, depending on how much exposure one had with it.

They were banned in all countries on Earth, and a death sentence could be served to anyone found in possession of one. Its capabilities were simply too dangerous.

And they had one directly underneath them all these years, and until just two days ago - he was under the impression his family was perfect.

"She did," Was Toms simple reply thereafter. Alec was certain he had never seen him look so unsure.

"Do you still love her?"

"Do _you_?"

"She's my mother," Alec fit the beret on, pushing the top to one side gently. Before closing his eyes, and frowning, "I... I know I should want to hear her story. Want her to say sorry so we could at least have a chance of at least being on good terms before they reach the conclusion we know they will... But for some strange reason, I feel nothing. I think... I think I simply don't care."

"It could be the side-effects of the Emanator."

"It could be me."

"That's difficult to believe," Tom smiled once more at him. He did that a lot. Especially during tense moments, "You're an amazing person, despite your odd inclinations. I doubt you have a hateful bone in your body."

"That makes one of us, then," Alec insisted, his eyebrows narrowing, "Do I want to know when it'll happen to her?"

"Maybe. But that's for later. Today is not about her, it's about you. Graduating and branching into your powers," He stood up, moving to the door of his room and swinging his arms in a gesture that encouraged him to exit. When they were in the short, the dimly lit corridor of the house and moving towards the front door, after Alec had grabbed his communicator, he continued, "I forgot to mention... Your sister will be there too."

"What?" He muttered silently, trying to recall even the faintest memory of his elder sister. Alec had been only four when she had been taken for what kids called_ The Lessons. _Despite the sinister implication teens seemed to insinuate the entire thing had, they knew it was just private tutoring in advanced institutions. Children who showed overwhelming talent, both with their Natures and intellectually, were taken away from their parents to be taught at the Paradise Domes over Antarctica.

Controlling Natures and combat skill was only taught at Tertiary Schoolhouses for people like himself. Since for the average person, they would not run rampant normally - but for those of immense talent like his sister, they would devastate environments if they aren't trained to keep them under control and use them. So whenever strong children or teens were found by the representatives, they would be taken away. And the parents would have no say. They did not even get to see their children until the Class-of-Seventeen graduation ceremonies.

Though teenagers from the regular schools graduated at seventeen, those from The Lessons graduated at nineteen. Which would explain why his sister would also be graduating this year.

In truth, he wasn't sure how to feel. He couldn't even remember her, and he hasn't seen her for almost seventeen years. He'd even completely forgotten that she too would be graduating this year.

As he did, he told his father, "I don't know how to feel."

"I don't either. I haven't seen her in quite a bit of time. She may not even remember _us_. Even with my status as a Repressor, the poes wouldn't let me see her. I missed fourteen years of her life and he acted as if it's the most normal thing in the universe. I contemplated turning the dome to ashes and just taking her, see how he would like to be at the receiving end of nonchalance. Of course, your mother talked me out of it. A great honour, she called it. But I didn't see it as such," He looked uncomfortable near the end of the sentence. _Mother_, Alec deduced.

"Would've been a nice way to get yourself imprisoned. Then you would've missed _both_ of our lives," Alec regarded his father with a glance, smiling a little and Tom flushed.

"Well, if you put it that way... Hey, it looks like your disk is here!"

Alec knew a diversion of a topic when he saw one, but his father had the right of it. The metallic disk levitated silently just outside the door of their simple home, beckoning him with its meer presence for him to get on it and leave. It would take him to the floating schools in the mesosphere, where the ceremony would be occurring and where they had spent most of their years learning.

"Say hello to Jadee for me... Tell her I'm sorry."

"She'd be an idiot to be angry at you for that. You had no say," He approached the disk. It was a cloudy day, with a look of rain. Just as he liked it, "But I'll say hello... that's bound to be quite the encounter," Alec stepped onto it like he was climbing a step. Immediately, he suddenly felt compressed into an enclosed space - though the feeling lasted only a moment, and he was once again 'outside', "I'll see you later today. We'll decide on my advanced education together."

His father nodded from just behind the threshold of the door, smiling, "I'll see you then."

-Break-

It was his favourite part of the journey to the Floating Schools. Going up towards the clouds on the disk, his view of his home city - Nelspruit - expanding the higher he went. The buildings that reached for the sky, the ships that passed overhead, and the large parks covered with trees that filled the spaces between every few blocks in every neighbourhood. It was beautiful.

It helped lift his sour mood, but he began to wonder if he should be worried about having missed two days of school. The teachers took attendance extremely seriously. Even on days where nought was to be taught, they tended to be displeased if someone missed those days. Though he supposed a situation like the one his family was in warranted a bit of leniency. It had made international headlines, and the media was not shy about coming around the schools.

As he was breaking through a line of clouds, another disk came up close to his. On it was a short, dark-haired boy that was his age and dressed as he was. He had a particularly large nose, that shifted when the boy's mouth formed into a smile when he looked at him. Alec forced a fake smile with one side of his lips that lasted only a second. The boy shrugged, looked up and zoomed upwards.

Alec looked up too. One could see the dimensional circles that popped up like bubbles from underneath the floating schools, and the bridges that connected all the landing platforms and the disk ports to it. The dome that surrounded it was invisible to him, and he was no sensory, so he could not sense it. But he knew they were there, they taught them about. It did its most important job the best: Keeping all the oxygen inside. Protecting against attack was a secondary function, that had yet to see use.

He entered a tube line that went through one the protruding circles and led up towards one of the platforms. Flying up passed flashing white lights, he could hear a loud, booming voice telling them to go to the canteen for breakfast. It only got the louder when he reached the top of the large, crowded platform, around fifty other people popped up on their disks.

Red lights surrounded the particular platform, which held a multitude of holes set in rows next to pathways that led to the school. South Paramount was one the largest institutions on the planet, and just from the outside, that much was visible. It looked like a city with dozens of skyscrapers more than anything, with hundreds of mobile transports and some of the biggest elevators that helped move people up and down its facilities. There were thousands of people his age alone. More when the other age groups were counted.

Alec walked towards the gates that led to the transport spots, figuring all of them would probably be sending them towards the cafeteria. He got odd looks from the people that did notice him, but most of them paid him no heed. Most likely they did not see him. He was thankful for that.

Someone tapped his shoulder

He turned.

Keanan Mouton was an auburn-haired boy, with blue eyes - and a face that was made to hold a passive expression. He was nearly as short as Alec himself, but with a more athletic build

"Where have you been?" Was the first question he asked, his features ever blank.

"Hello, Keanan."

"You left me alone, with all these... _people!"_

"Not exactly my fault I lost all the mind for school," Alec retorted, and his only friends' expression softened into a frown. Their circle used to be bigger, but a study released by Intel correlated talent and power and the people you associate yourself with. After that, it shrunk to only the two of them - because the others actually had the hopes of doing well in their tertiary career. Keanan and he were both at the bottom of the board. Not out of pure laziness - they worked their asses off to just pass-through, but they simply lacked the skill of learning.

"I heard about that, " Keanan muttered, and they began walking again. That was the closest thing to comforting Alec ever got from him, and vice versa. It was how they worked, "So you're a child born of ra-"

"I would rather not talk about it."

Keanan shrugged, "Understandable."

"Did you wait here every morning?" Alec inquired. Keanan usually waited for him in the mornings here, so they could go on the short rides on the transports together. Alec did too, on the rare occasions he arrived before him.

"Of course I did. Not like I could have done much else. Besides, you were only gone for like what, two days? I was going to do it for the whole week before I accepted your absence to be long term. But we didn't have a week, now did we?"

"Suppose we didn't."

They entered the emptiest transport they could find and found themselves sitting on a vacant row of chairs. The transports floated from the ground but followed a track - much like a train would. Though they were in no way trains. They were called M.F.T.T's, for Mote Fueled Thruster Transports, though most just called them Thruster Transports.

"Any idea where you could potentially go?"

"Where _we_ could possibly go," Keanan corrected him through the sounds of ringing bells as the transport took off, "It's the Sectors for the untalented Alec, you know."

"Yeah, but we have like what, nearly two hundred planets in the Sectors? And hundreds of Tertiary Schoolhouses. So we have a vast array of opportunities or choices. I'm just wondering where you think our Recommendation cards will point us to?

"Oh... Well, I don't know. Way too many for me to even think of a single one. We'll see with our suggestions," He ran a hand through his hair, and the transport came to stop after a light _'beep. _The cafeteria was in District D of the school, the largest and usually the most packed of the thirteen districts. It was where all the boarding apartments were, the lockers, the exercising facilities and recreation rooms.

"I need to get my Communicator from my locker."

"You realise your locker is just in front of the canteen?"

"Yeah?"

"What was the point of telling me that then?"

Keanan shrugged, "You would be the one raising your eyebrows if I didn't immediately turn left but instead went right to the locker."

Alec shook his head and waited near the open doors of the cafeteria when they had entered the building as the other boy went about the details to open his locker. Without much else to look at but him as they entered the room, people took more notice of him. More whispering. More pointing. Though there was a different trail of mutters from the people who came from the transports.

_'In white.'_

_'So cool.'_

He caught snippets of the topic as they passed him and entered the canteen. But he did not know what they were on about, but when he heard:

_'...Antarctica."_

He knew.

_Jadee,_ Alec remembered. She would be part of the group of nineteen-year-olds that graduated with them this year. Alec wondered what she looked like now. They were siblings, but one would not be able to tell when looking at them. For one, they were mixed siblings. She had taken from their dad and had the green eyes and blond hair. Her skin was of the white variety. He was brown-skinned, much like his mother. With the accompanying afro-textured hair, and dark eyes.

He didn't know what to expect if he was honest. Would she recognise him? Would _he_ even recognise her? Bringing up his Communicator, he opened up pictures of them as children. Creating versions of her current appearance in his head. None of them felt accurate.

"That your sister?" Keanan had gotten his device. Alec had told him he had one some years ago, and where she was, "The one they took to the Domes?"

"Yeah. I'm trying to imagine what she'd look like now. So I can spot -"

A commotion in the hall cut him short. The mutters in the hall seemed to grow louder as groups of approaching learners made way for something... Or someone.

The latter was the most accurate. A group turned the corner, walking in three columns, heads raised in what Alec felt was palpable arrogance - but it seemed justified. Alec had not come into his strength yet, he had been taught nought on how to manage his powers. But even he could feel the strength each of them radiated. It was stronger in some than others, but the weakest one was far beyond anything he got out of anyone from the school. Their own instructors included.

They were garbed in the same styled uniform as they, but their capes were white, instead of the blue and their berets were blue instead of white. The column followed a shaven, stout man - who wore a grey, long-sleeved upper bodysuit, with golden shrugs and an elastic component on the wrist, with dark pants that were buttoned from the stomach of the suit, and brown shoes.

When they drew near, Alec's thoughts caught up to him and he closed his communicator. They didn't seem to even regard the rest of them, with their eyes set forward towards the path.

"They must think they look so holy," Keanan said from next to him as if the shaven man the group followed had was not just been passing them into the canteen. Alec tried to spot any familiar face in the group. There was quite a bit of them, and singling out one without looking like a fool proved to be difficult, "I'll give it to them though, they could probably wipe the floor with us."

Alec sighed, stopping his search for his sibling. Using ID software without the consent of the person being identified was illegal, so that made this harder. It would be a lot easier to do it inside the canteen, he decided. He turned to Keanan.

"Not something they could even boast about, that."


End file.
